Winning the Day Trading Game: Lessons and Techniques from a Lifetime of Trading (Wiley Trading)

Winning the Day Trading Game offers an insider's view of the trading life and provides proven strategies for profitable trading. Professional trader Tom Busby explains how the strategies that made him so much money early on in his career ultimately failed during the 1987 stock market crash and then reveals how he reinvented himself as a high-percentage day trader. He interweaves personal experiences with technical explanations to outline the cornerstones of his technique. In highlighting his own trading experiences, Busby clearly explains how to beat the market by balancing the impulses of greed and fear, managing risk at all times; and taking responsibility for your trading.

Thomas L. Busby (Mobile, AL) has been a professional trader and broker for 25 years, working with Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney. He founded the Day Trading Institute in 1996 and it has grown into one of the most successful trading schools in the world.

---

All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

definite keeper, 2008-06-06
worth reading and keeping, alot of good advice, not alot of noise.

john clark


7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Magical Thinking!, 2007-10-18
Not a book I would recommend to either a beginner or a more advanced student of trading. The author preaches some obvious truths which you can get way better explained in dozens of other books, and he shares some nuggets of his trading methodology. Some of my favorites were the key numbers you need to watch while trading the S&P futures contract (28 numbers from the range of 0 to 99 - what a treat indeed, as much as 72% of the numbers are not "key" - obviously not a word on why these numbers are the "key numbers"), and a three Ts methodology of trading, whereas the author enters the market with large position and then liquidates 1/3 at a nominal profit, another 1/3 at another very small profit, and lets the profit on the balance of 1/3 of the position run. By doing so, he apparently has a sure way of minimizing risk since he immediately locks in the profit on 2/3 of his position. Quite impressive but somehow he forgets to explain how he makes sure that his position is always on the right side of the market and he never ends up with an immediate loss on his initial huge position. Incidentally, his methodology is the exact opposite of what Mr. Livermore had recommended, while the author considers him his guru. If you have about $30-40 to spend and like a good laugh, by all means buy this book. If you have significantly more than that to spare, the author also offers trading seminars -- I am sure these are amusing -- and the usual $2,950 software. Enjoy!


5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent Futures Trading Book, 2007-10-05
Consistently making money as a day trader is exceedingly difficult. I can verify that fact, as a former day trader, and as the author of a comprehensive book on day trading. Every trader would like to become a millionaire trading the markets a few hours a day. Unfortunately, this is a pipe dream for the vast majority of traders. Most traders are neither well disciplined nor have a rule-based buy and sell strategy. Moreover, they are usually too emotional, and they don't properly manage risk to protect their capital. The end result is usually a change in profession.

Busby's begins his 13-chapter book with a retrospective on how he got started in trading. Early in his career, he was as a broker at Merrill Lynch while earning his law degree. He then migrated to trading S&P 500 futures in 1982 when they first became available. Busby enjoyed had much success until devastating losses on Black Monday, a day that impacted him for many years to come. After taking a big hit on October 19, 1987, due to an unhedged futures position, Busby spent years trying to regain his self-confidence. His trading results tended to be mediocre. He was searching for his future direction.

After coming to grips with this situation, Busby decided to look forward instead of backward. He embarked on a path to develop a systematic approach to trading futures that offered consistent profits and minimal risk. After developing and successfully trading his methodology, he decided to found the Day Trading Institute in 1996 to teach new and experienced traders his approach. In 2001, I attended Busby's two-day seminar on futures trading. The book's contents closely parallel the seminar. As I read the book, I remembered many of the key points taught by Busby and his associate Geoff Smith.

Busby certainly has the experience and expertise to educate potential and existing traders with over 25 years of trading futures and teaching about futures in his firm's workshops since 1996. For those individuals looking for a time-tested approach method to trading the S&P 500 futures, he provides a realistic, informative, highly-structured and workable approach that will put the odds of success in your favor, as long as you do your homework, apply yourself, learn from your mistakes every day, and always use protective stop loss orders.

Throughout the book, Busby continually hammers home the point of using protective stops on all trades to limit risk. He believes that trading without stops can potentially lead to big losses that will prematurely end your trading career. This protective stop insurance policy certainly paid off on September 11, 2001 when the market fell precipitously. Busby and his clients were automatically taken out of the market by their stops, before the big drop accelerated which, Busby's career had some bumps along the way.

The futures trading methodology that Busby developed and espoused in his book consists of adhering to three main elements:
· Key Numbers
· Time of Day
· Road Map

Key numbers represent critical support and resistance levels that are often tested, as well as the opening price for the day, and week, month and year for the S&P 500 futures contract, for example. Busby believes that there are three trading times during the day that offer better odds of making money. These include one morning and two afternoon sessions of 30 minute to 75 minute each. Lastly, he reviews a few key market indicators that he calls his "Road Map" to assess the market's condition that include the S&P and Nasdaq futures, NYSE and NASDAQ TICK and TRIN, foreign futures, and two proprietary indicators. Busby uses his electronic real-time "Road Map" as those before him used the ticker tape to read the market's pulse. Knowing the direction of the various market components and whether or not they are synchronized provides critical information as to whether a trade will be entered, and whether it will be a long or short.

In one chapter, Busby recaps the key points that have him years to learn and put in practice. At the end of the book, Busby writes, "The markets will crash again. Be prepared." That's what trading is all about, being prepared. Busby provides a sound approach to a challenging and rewarding profession. A more precise title for this book would have been Winning the Futures Day Trading Game because the contents are almost exclusively focused on futures trading. However, the basic trading advice that he provides is well suited for day traders of other investment vehicles. Although some readers may not feel that his trading approach fully fits their needs or personality, there are numerous insights that will shorten their learning curve and reduce their losses. Education is the key to successful trading. Busby certainly provides a realistic educational experience that readers will benefit from and hopefully become better traders.



3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent book, but no charts..., 2007-01-19
Nice read and good tips as well. But a few charts. A good begining. I'm satisfied with the book. I Recommend.


5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Helpful and readable experience from a real pro trader!, 2006-11-30
There are several reasons for my positive rating of this book. First, the author dared tell his dire trading failure in 1987 and the consequent financial and emotional trouble from then till 1992. Second, he emphasized repetitively on the need for one's own trading journal, protective stops and preparaton before any trade. Third, he elaborated plainly his past unsuccessful day trading routine. Fourth, he preached detailedly the importance of special dates and key numbers. Fifth, he respected Jesse Livermore much. I do, too. Finally, I had read four of his seven suggested readings beforehand. Our thoughts should be close. Perhaps the major weakness I can tell of it is that he had talked very little on TA tools, or at least the importance of them on day trading. In short, readable! But not on the top priority list.

Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.